Rounding up fascinating news and research in the field of forensic science.

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Fingerprints are something of a staple in forensic science. For over 100 years we have used the unique details of fingerprints to identify victims and suspects, and draw connections between people and objects to place suspects at crime scenes. Fingermarks are encountered on all kinds of surfaces that can have an effect on how easy it is to visualise the mark and for how long the mark persists. As a result, the market is flooded with products for developing fingerprints, from powders to glues to chemical reagents.

Despite the options available, some surfaces, for instance metals, still prove somewhat tricky when it comes to developing prints. This is due to various factors, such as how the chemical results in the fingermark and developing reagents may react with the surface. This is obviously problematic when trying to obtain fingerprints from knives and firearms, a matter of particular importance right now worldwide. For years researchers have been examining methods of improving the detection of fingerprints on metals, including metal vapour deposition and different chemical reagents, but reliable techniques are still few and far between.

Researchers at the University of Nottingham and University of Derby in the UK are using analytical chemistry to solve this problem. Using a technique called Time-of-Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry, or ToF-SIMS, researchers have developed a way of producing images of fingerprints of various metal surfaces. ToF-SIMS utilises an ion beam which is passed along the surface of the sample, causing ions (charged chemical components) to be emitted from the sample. These are then analysed by mass spectrometry and the results used to produce a kind of map of the surface.

Researchers deposited fingermarks on various types of commonly-encountered metals, such as stainless steel and aluminium, and studied the effects of time on the ability to visualise the prints. Cyanoacrylate (or superglue) fuming, a traditional technique particularly popular when analysing metal surfaces, proved to be unreliable, with the print’s quality degrading rapidly or disappearing completely in just a matter of days. However using this new mass spectrometry-based approach, fingermarks could be visualised in samples up to 26 days old, a vast improvement on traditional methods.

The high-resolution images produced sufficient detail to not only observe ridge detail in the marks, but even the shape and position of individual sweat pores. Furthermore, and perhaps most importantly in a forensic context, the technique is non-destructive. Current methods of visualising fingerprints tend to involve adding a powder or chemical to the print, inevitably altering and potentially contaminating it. But the use of ToF-SIMS ensures the print remains intact, so further development or analysis techniques can be employed if required.

By enabling the visualisation of fingerprints that previous techniques may have failed to reveal, this method has the potential to not only aid investigators as they face the ongoing rise of knife and gun crime, but could also be applied to cold cases. However it is important to note that fingermarks deposited as part of research are not always indicative of real-world samples. In reality the fingerprints we leave behind can vary greatly in the amount of material deposited and the type of material being left behind. Traces of anything handled can be deposited in the fingermark, adding many potential variables to the real-world applicability of this kind of work. Despite this, the study demonstrates a promising new technique for the development of fingermarks on metals, which could have great implications in the investigation of violent gun and knife crimes.

In December 2009, Philip Scott Cannon of Polk County, Oregon was released from prison after his conviction was found to be based on ‘junk science’. By this time, he had served over 10 years.

The story of his wrongful imprisonment began on 23rd November 1998, when Bimla Boyd noticed that the mobile home of a neighbour appeared to be on fire. Upon investigating, she discovered the bodies of three people; Jason Kinser, his girlfriend Suzan Osborn, and Celesta Graves. All three victims had been shot. Boyd promptly called the police, and a murder investigation ensued.

Boyd stated that earlier in the day she had noticed a maroon van parked nearby, a van which happened to belong to Philip Scott Cannon. Around the same time, local men Jeremy Olsen and Larry Weaver were on their way to deliver water to the victims’ trailer. Upon arrival at the trailer, Olsen and Weaver claimed that they were met by Cannon, who was said to be “acting strangely”. Cannon informed the men that they should not go into the trailer because Jason Kinser was upset and in the midst of a heated argument with an unknown Hispanic man. Olsen and Weaver subsequently left without entering the trailer. Based on this eyewitness testimony and the fact that Cannon owned the maroon van spotted nearby, he soon became the prime suspect.

Credit: Polk County Itemizer-Observer

When questioned by police, Cannon maintained his innocence and claimed Kinser had called him over to give an estimate for fixing a plumbing problem in the trailer, after which he promptly left when Kinser began arguing with another man. However the police had a very different impression of the situation, believing that Cannon was a meth user and Kinser his dealer. Further suspicion fell on Cannon when a prisoner, Steven Brobston, informed police that he had entrusted Cannon with a box containing $16,000 to be used to support Celesta Graves, Brobston’s girlfriend and one of the victims. With the circumstantial evidence mounting, investigators searched Cannon’s home, finding the lockbox but no sign of the money. They did however stumble upon a number of weapons and ammunition. This was sufficient to arrest Cannon, who was taken into custody on 3rd December and charged with three counts of aggravated murder and the illegal possession of a firearm.

During the trail, Olsen, Weaver and Boyd were all called upon to recount their experiences of seeing Cannon near the trailer on the day of the murder. Of course this evidence was purely circumstantial, so an expert witness was called upon to study the bullets collected from the crime scene and those recovered from the suspect’s home. Michael Conrady of Oregon State University’s radiation center conducted a metallurgic analysis of the bullets known as comparative bullet lead analysis. This technique involves the application of various analytical techniques, but primarily atomic emission spectroscopy, to bullet composition determination. The method aims to establish the composition of metals in the bullet, such as copper, tin, antimony and silver, and compare profiles to ascertain whether two bullets are chemically identical. Based on this analysis, Conrady testified that the bullets from the crime scene and those from Cannon’s home were chemically identical, therefore Cannon’s ammunition was used to kill the three victims. However the weapons found in Cannon’s home were not connected to the murders, nor did police establish a reasonable motive for the triple homicide. Despite these shortcomings, on 28th February 2000, Cannon was found guilty and sentenced to three life sentences with no parole.

At the time of Cannon’s trial, the use of comparative bullet lead analysis was already under scrutiny, with some believing the reliability of the technique was unfounded. In 2005, the national Academy of Science discredited the technique and deemed it ‘junk science’, and soon after the FBI abandoned the use of this method altogether. As Cannon’s conviction was so heavily reliant on the bullet analysis, in 2009 a Polk County Circuit judge vacated Cannon’s original conviction. Incidentally it was now apparent that police involved in the original trial had hired Conrady to conduct the bullet analysis because the Oregan State crime lab had refused on the basis of the technique being scientifically unreliable. In order for a re-trial to take place, the original bullets were demanded in order to conduct further analysis. Polk County prosecutors insisted that the original trial evidence had been sent to the Department of Justice when Cannon had appealed his conviction, however Assistant Attorney General Susan Gerber, who had been assigned the case, claimed she had never received this evidence. It later came to light, when Gerber was suspended from her position on assault charges, that she had had the evidence all along, locked away in a filing cabinet.

In light of all of this, Cannon’s conviction was dismissed and he was released from prison. By this point he had spent over a decade behind bars. No other arrests have been made in relation to the murder of Kinser, Osborn and Graves.